Prize and horror I
regret to say that I said, "vegetarian." Carter Brooks came over to
me like a cat to a saucer of milk, and pulled me off into a corner.
"It's all right," he said. "I 'phoned mama, and she said to bring
him. He's known as Grosvenor here, of course. They'll never suspect
a thing. Now, do I get a small `thank you'?"
"I won't see him."
"Now look here, Bab," he protested, "you two have got to make this
thing up You are a pair of Idiots, quarreling over nothing. Poor
old Hal is all broken up. He's sensative. You've got to remember
how sensative he is."
"Go, away" I cried, in broken tones. "Go away, and take him with you."
"Not until he had spoken to your Father," he observed, setting his
jaw. "He's here for that, and you know it. You can't play fast and
loose with a man, you know."
"Don't you dare to let him speak to father!"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"That's between you to, of course," he said. "It's not up to me.
Tell him yourself, if you've changed your mind. I don't intend," he
went on, impressively, "to have any share in ruining his life."
"Oh piffle," I said. I am aware that this is slang, and does not
belong in a Theme. But I was driven to saying it.
I got through the crowd by using my elbows. I am afraid I gave the
Bishop quite a prod, and I caught Mr. Andrews on his rotateing
waistcoat. But I was desparate.
Alas, I was too late.
The caterer's man, who had taken Patrick's place in a hurry, was at
the punch bowl, and father was gone. I was just in time to see him
take H. into his library and close the door.
Here words fail me. I knew perfectly well that beyond that door H,
whom I had invented and who therefore simply did not exist, was
asking for my Hand. I made up my mind at once to run away and go on
the stage, and I had even got part way up the stairs, when I
remembered that, with a dollar for the picture and five dollars for
the violets and three dollars for the hat pin I had given Sis, and
two dollars and a quarter for mother's handkercheif case, I had
exactly a dollar and seventy-five cents in the world.
I WAS TRAPPED.
I went up to my room, and sat and waited. Would father be violent,
and throw H. out and then come upstairs, pale with fury and
disinherit me? Or would the whole Familey conspire together, when
the people had gone, and send me to a convent? I made up my mind,
if it was the convent, to take the veil and be a nun. I would go to
nurse lepers, or something, and then, when it was too late, they
would be sorry.
The stage or the convent, nun or actress? Which?
I left the door open, but there was only the sound of revelry
below. I felt then that it was to be the convent. I pinned a towel
around my face, the way the nuns wear whatever they call them, and
from the side it was very becoming. I really did look like Julia
Marlowe, especialy as my face was very sad and tradgic.
At something before seven every one had gone, and I heard Sis and
mother come upstairs to dress for dinner. I sat and waited, and
when I heard father I got cold all over. But he went on by, and I
heard him go into mother's room and close the door. Well, I knew I
had to go through with it, although my life was blasted. So I
dressed and went downstairs.
Father was the first down. HE CAME DOWN WHISTLING.
It is perfectly true. I could not beleive my ears.
He approached me with a smileing face.
"Well, Bab," he said, exactly as if nothing had happened, "have you
had a nice day?"
He had the eyes of a bacilisk, that creature of Fable.
"I've had a lovely day, Father," I replied. I could be bacilisk-ish also.
There is a mirror over the drawing room mantle, and he turned me
around until we both faced it.
"Up to my ears," he said, referring to my heighth." And Lovers
already! Well, I daresay we must make up our minds to lose you."
"I won't be lost," I declared, almost violently. "Of course, if you
intend to shove me off your hands, to the first Idiot who comes
along and pretends a lot of stuff, I----"
"My dear !" said father, looking surprised. "Such an outburst!
All I was trying to say, before your mother comes down, is that
I--well, that I understand and that I shall not make my little girl
unhappy by--er--by breaking her Heart."
"Just what do you mean by that, father?"
He looked rather uncomfortable, being.